At 8.06 this morning it was done: the House of Representatives passed the government’s Migration and Maritime Powers Legislation Amendment (Resolving the Asylum Legacy Caseload) Bill 2014, following its passage and amendment just after midnight in the Senate. Parliamentarians then got to go home for Christmas, having delivered the Immigration Minister extraordinary powers that in effect obliterate any further pretence that Australia regards asylum seekers as human beings.
The bill restored the failed Howard-era policy of temporary protection visas, a mechanism that actually increased boat arrivals when last attempted. Whether Clive Palmer seriously believes that there is a pathway to citizenship contained in a kind of homeopathic form within the legislation — or it merely suits its purposes to pretend there is — we don’t know, but Scott Morrison has been crystal clear that TPVs will never provide permanent protection.
But the bill goes much further, freeing Australia from any obligations associated with the Refugee Convention, including giving Morrison and his department — which has repeatedly demonstrated it is profoundly incompetent and resistant to the most basic forms of accountability — the power to return people to torture and persecution without judicial review.
That the passage of such a bill was only secured with the blatant use of blackmail, in which Morrison used detained children as hostages to be bartered for Senate compliance, says much about the wretched contents of the bill, about the complete amorality of the government and about the depths to which it has needed to sink in order to give itself a win on which to end a wretched year. That crossbench senators like Ricky Muir, Nick Xenophon and the PUPs gave in to such threats, however, is a reflection entirely on them. Their ostentatious anguish at having to deal with such a choice can’t hide the grim reality of their actions.
The bill is immoral, it’s bad policy, and it’s been passed using the lives of children as bargaining chips. The division lists in the Senate and the House of Representatives will be a roll call of shame in years to come.
47 thoughts on “Crikey says: refugee bill an immoral disgrace”
paddy
December 5, 2014 at 1:18 pmWell said Crikey. The bill that was passed by the Senate last night and the HoR this morning is an abomination.
It’s a truly shameful day for the whole country.
Jocelyn Penington
December 5, 2014 at 1:39 pmI agree. I feel so ashamed, helpless and dirty. I confess that I have largely stopped reading refugee news, because it makes me so sad and angry. The things I can do; writing letters, marching, signing petitions: I know the government regards them all with contempt. I think Scott Morrison and Tony Abbott have contempt for all human beings outside their immediate families
David Hand
December 5, 2014 at 2:05 pmChildren became bargaining chips the moment their parents put them on a leaky boat to come to Australia.
Morrison is offering a way to get them out of detention.
Crikey can be relied on to keep bleating the inner urban green elite mantra of open borders.
According to Crikey, most of Australia is immoral and wicked as opposed to that enlightened beacon of purity, holiness, righteousness and sainthood of those breathing the rarefied atmosphere of the high moral ground in Fitzroy.
Norman Hanscombe
December 5, 2014 at 2:44 pmReading the article and the first two posts helps in understanding why so many students in Philosophy of Ethics used to have so much difficulty trying to synthesise what they believed as a “known” with what close analysis of our moral beliefs unearthed.
ann clarke
December 5, 2014 at 3:00 pmThank you Crikey. As a “white” South African born-arrived by boat- Australian who was brought here to enjoy the land of the fair go, I am deeply saddened by the behaviour of Morrison and this bill. More desperate and more sad are the lives of those still stuck in indefinite detention here, on Manus and Nauru. We cannot drop this just because the “kids” are off Christmas Island.
CML
December 5, 2014 at 3:33 pmWhile I agree with a lot of what is said in this editorial, perhaps you should watch for two things happening in the near future:
Firstly, I predict the governments poll numbers will improve.
Secondly, if the question was asked (and it will be) do voters want the boats stopped at ANY price, a significant majority would say ‘Ýes’.
Welcome to reality – this is what we have become.
Makes you proud to be Australian, doesn’t it????
Pedantic, Balwyn
December 5, 2014 at 3:37 pmMorrison had/has the legal authority as Minister to release the children from both Manus Island and Nauru. He choose not in an act of blackmail to strengthen his powers to reduce even further any obligations we have under the refugee Convention. I have some empathy for Ricky Muir, that he felt he had no choice other than to give in to intimidation or the poor kids would have remained incarcerated. However one day Morrison will have to answer for his actions.
Yclept
December 5, 2014 at 4:05 pmHopefully there is a clause that says we can machine gun them at will to make all the RWNJs happy. Joyous day eh David, democracy at work. Who said the senate was stuffed?
Zeke
December 5, 2014 at 4:09 pmDavid Hand @ 3
Maybe the boats wouldn’t be leaky if the government:
a) Stopped burning the boats asylum seekers arrive on.
b) Let the boat crew sail their boat back to Indonesia after dropping off refugees. There’s no crime in helping refugees to a safe haven (no, Indonesia isn’t a safe haven). If we make it a crime then we’ll only get criminals bringing asylum seekers to Australia.
I find a moral bankruptcy in the idea that we torture refugees as a deterrence (threat) to other refugees who might come here.. and justify it as saving lives lost at sea, when we actually contribute to the conditions that cause those loss of lives.
Murdoch can be relied upon to keep bleating the outer Western bogan mantra of xenophobia
See, the game can be played both ways and the insults prove nothing and waste bandwidth.
Shoot the piano player
December 5, 2014 at 4:47 pmIt makes you weep.